美人鱼旅馆 Pensione paura/1978

Another brilliant giallo thriller from director Francesco Barilli， whose THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK was one of the genre’s most haunting and original films. This Italian-Spanish follow-up is a bit muddled， but no less engrossing.

Set in a family hotel in Northern Italy in 1945， the film concerns Rosa (Leonora Fani)， who helps her mother run the hotel while awaiting her soldier father’s return from the front. In a Barilli film， nothing is as it seems， and before long Mom (who is sleeping with a traitor she’s hidden in the attic) is murdered. Then poor Rosa is raped by two of the guests， who also are murdered， and while she’s hiding the bodies she is forced into an orgy by all of the other guests. But before the guests get to far a mysterious man enters all shots the guests. Who is this mysterious man and what are his intentions for Rosa?

Like all the best gialli， Pensione Paura completely dispenses with logic early on， elevating weirdness to nearly operatic levels while absorbing the viewer in a thick and spellbinding atmosphere of mounting dread. Francisco Rabal co-stars with Luc Merenda， Lidia Biondi， and Jose Maria Prada.

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